


An Unexpected Goodbye

by Haberdasher



Series: Twitch Plays Pokemon [44]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Twitch Plays Pokemon - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Twitch Plays HeartGold, Twitch Plays Pokemon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 13:03:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2851697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aurora's catching and releasing a Banette and how those events are related to Kenya.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Unexpected Goodbye

The voices hadn’t wanted it to happen.

They had listed off all kinds of Pokemon that they wanted to catch, but Banette was never on the list. In fact, few mentioned Banette as a possible catch either good or bad, the species’ existence apparently all but forgotten by the mob. When Aurora made that Ultra Ball fly towards its target, they had bemoaned the Banette’s capture as a wasted opportunity, just more time and money unnecessarily spent.

But then, maybe that’s the way Aurora wanted it. The young Trainer was still reeling from the loss of her beloved Groudon Kenya, still trying to figure out whether that tragic release had been the voices’ fault or her own. In a moment when Aurora was struggling to determine how the will of the voices differed from her own, she was all too happy to make such a small gesture of resistance.

The Banette itself seemed fairly unremarkable. Though Aurora hated to admit it, the voices that pronounced it weak and useless had a point. They started plotting to visit the dreaded computer- _box the Banette_ , they said,  _kill the ghost_. That dreaded computer… hadn’t the voices learned their lesson about the risks of using the computer? Didn’t they care at all that Kenya was gone now, dead because of that stupid computer, dead because they had chosen to visit it? But then again, maybe they didn’t care about Kenya, really. So many of them had called for Kenya’s removal one way or another, claiming that Kenya was overpowered, too good for them to use…

Well, they were right about that much. Kenya was too good to be used by the likes of them, too good to be bossed around by the nonsensical whims of the voices. Kenya had deserved better, and truth be told, Aurora had dreamed on occasion of a time when Kenya would be freed from the voice’s control. But not like this. Never like this.

Aurora was jolted back to reality by her new Banette tugging on her skirt. She bent down, kneeling until she and the Pokemon were eye to eye. “What’s up?”

The Banette looked her in the eye, grinned widely, then opened Aurora’s bag, stuck its face inside, and started rooting through its contents.

"Hey! Mine!" Aurora tugged the bag away, but as the Pokemon was thrown to the ground from within, its hands clutched an envelope.

Aurora smiled. She tried to pay her new teammate on the head, but received only a tingle in her hand and a bug-eyed stare from the Ghost-type in return. “Good. Keep mail. Safe.” But the thought of mail inevitably turned her thoughts away from the Banette in front of her and to another Pokemon, one who had arrived holding mail that would now never be delivered, one who could have been saved had it just held on to that previous message…

A tingle on the shoulder disturbed Aurora’s reverie. The Banette’s right arm was touching her while its other hand, now covered in the mud that lined the ground of Victory Road, held the envelope up to her face. While it had been clean before, the paper now held a message hastily scrawled in dirt:

_Here’s the mail! It never fails!_

Aurora gasped. She knew that message well. The voices had spoken it often, whenever they were talking about…

"Kenya?!"

The Banette bounced up and down, nodding energetically. It grabbed a handful of envelopes from the bag, shoved its hand into the ground, and began scribbling wildly. Aurora sat there and stared wide-eyed as the Pokemon wrote message after message.

"But… how?"

_I can’t stay. I just came to say goodbye._

"No! We… I need you!"

_That’s against the rules. But I know you can do this without me._

Aurora shoved the  her hand into the ground as the ghost did the same. The clump of dirt that now filled the palm of her hand was pleasantly cool, and she kneaded and molded it as she waited for Kenya to keep writing.

_Don’t worry about me. I’m with Lord Helix now. Everything will be okay._

Aurora balled her hand into a fist, and half of the dirt enclosed fell to the floor. “No!”

_I know it’s hard, but stay strong. Keep going. Become Champion. For my sake._

Pebbles and bits of grass pushed against her skin, and she reluctantly wiped her hands of all that she held. “But…” Aurora took a deep breath and looked her friend in the eye as she tried to accept what stood before her. “…okay.”

_I have to go soon. One last thing._

"What-"

And then she felt it. Her whole body was enveloped in what felt like fog, cold fog that sent shivers down her spine. It was so different from before, from the big bear hugs that Kenya always gave. Before, Kenya’s hugs had been strong enough to entirely immobilize her, even leaving bruises on occasion. This hug felt like she was hugging air.

The world seemed to stand still, and Aurora felt like their hug would never end… until it did. The Pokemon shoved the used letters back into Aurora’s bag, then stood up and waved. As the seconds went by, Aurora could see less and less of the Banette and more and more of the cave wall beyond.

"No, Kenya! Not yet!" Aurora could feel the hot tears running down her face and onto her lap. Her words echoed in the dark abyss of the Victory Road cave. "Stay- please- for me!"

The Banette shook its head. It didn’t have a letter in its hand, but the gesture’s meaning was clear enough without one. Their time together had run out, this time for good.

"…goodbye." The word was garbled as Aurora forced it out between sniffles.

The Banette reached out and grabbed her hand, but Aurora could barely feel its touch. A moment later, and all that touched her was the dank cave air.

Aurora sniffled a few times as her thoughts went wild, then took a few deep breaths, breathing in and out as slowly as possible. After a few minutes, the crying ceased. All was quiet. She wiped the tears from her face, then stood up, her legs now caked in the same dirt that covered her mail. She sat there for a moment, listening to the sound of her breath and of the distant calls of wild Pokemon, trying to calm her thoughts. Then she stood up and began walking towards the light, towards the Indigo Plateau, ready to challenge the Elite Four once more.

She could do this. She could- no, she  _had to_ keep going. Even if it meant giving in to the voices, those horrible voices that had taken away her friend. Aurora would keep putting one foot in front of the other, keep fighting the good fight no matter how hopeless it all seemed.

Because that’s what Kenya had wanted.


End file.
